Dreamforge will be kickstarting several new kits in the coming year.Each new product offering will be very focused, a single product, its actual production costs and any profits expected will need to be folded into the overall funding goal. This is a strong departure from the retail model, where revenues are gained over time and the investment/debt is front loaded.
Product availability outside the initial Kickstarter.Product availability outside of Kickstarter will be limited, only 100-300 units beyond the total needed to fulfill the Kickstarter will be run for post Kickstarter inventory, some of that will be soaked up by the inevitable issues, damaged kits, mispacked or missing items from a kit and kits that never make it to the backer and were lost in transit.
There may be re-runs offered on popular kits in future Kickstarter's, but there will be minimums that need to be met, typically a 500-unit run will be needed. The best way for a customer to approach this is to buy what you want and what you think you will need at the time of the offering, I cannot make a promise that there will be a second run if the overall interest is not there.
Kickstarter Shipping.Customers will need to pay for the actual shipping costs for the products they back. Shipping, as we all know is very expensive from the US to anywhere outside its borders. Each Kickstarter will be shipped directly from China to mitigate the expense to the customer as much as possible, this means most of the world will likely see a drastic cost reduction, but the US will experience a small increase. Why don't I just ship the US backers from the US? Because it's a hidden cost, shipping to the US, warehouse staff and other costs would need to be calculated into the Kickstarter and would increase the price once the true costs are factored in.
How are the Kickstarter's structured?Each Kickstarter will absorb the costs and required profits into a 1000 minimum unit run. If it costs $40,000 for the molds, production, boxes and other service costs, then the cost of each unit would be $40.00.
What happens if a Kickstarter success outstrips the required funding goal?Do you get a discount? Discounts will be offered when you pick up multiple kits, not by the overall success of a product or campaign. Those are profits that get re-invested to make DreamForge healthy, to pay for additional stock, to help pay for re-release of the current line of kits, as those tools will need to be re-cut at some point.
How will the Kickstarter's differ from other typical campaigns?To be clear, this is not going to be a song and dance Kickstarter model, there may be extras offered if there is room on the sprues, but anything extra in the form of products adds to the costs and I will not be bulking the costs to deal with that. I am trying to keep the price per kit to you as low as I possibly can.
Most of our campaigns will be short, ten to fifteen days with as much warning as I can provide about an upcoming campaign. I will be active during the campaign, answering questions, taking feedback and interacting with my customers but by the time the project launches, the current product will be locked in and not subject to revision or design changes.
The conversations I have with my customers before a campaign will allow us to develop products together and help deliver the kinds of items you would like to see.
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